Top Cat: Rodriguez winningest football coach ever hired at Arizona

Twenty-seven previous coaches have been asked to run the football program at the University of Arizona. None of them has had more wins on his resume than Rich Rodriguez.

The RichRod era is days from officially getting underway and the college football world will be paying attention. Rodriguez is the biggest name to coach this sport in Tucson and that name comes with a lot of victories.

Most Wins Before Being Hired at Arizona

W

L

%

Rich Rodriguez

120

84

0.588

Warren Woodson

97

31

0.758

John Mackovic

85

64

0.570

Dick Tomey

63

46

0.578

Darrell Mudra

56

10

0.848

It’s not even close. Rodriguez has 18 years as a head coach under his belt and in 12 of them he finished with a winning record.

Granted, teams play more games these days. Who were the most efficient winners brought in to coach Wildcat football?

Best Winning Percentage Before Being Hired at Arizona

W

L

%

Darrell Mudra

56

10

0.848

Warren Woodson

97

31

0.758

Tony Mason

26

18

0.591

Rich Rodriguez

120

84

0.588

Dick Tomey

63

46

0.578

Darrell Mudra was the coach of the “Ultimatum Bowl” and Warren Woodson was the architect of the Art Luppino “Cactus Comet” teams before landing Arizona on probation. Both coaches ended up in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Dick Tomey is the only name to appear on both those lists as well as this one:

Most Wins at Arizona

W

L

%

Years

WinningSeasons

Dick Tomey

95

64

0.597

14

9

Pop McKale

81

32

0.717

16

14

Larry Smith

48

28

0.632

7

1

Miles Casteel

46

26

0.639

8

7

Jim LaRue

41

37

0.526

8

3

Mike Stoops

41

50

0.451

8

3

That’s the only list that matters now for RichRod. Starting Sep. 1 no one in red and blue is going to care how many trophies Rodriguez held up at West Virginia or how many awards his recruits win at Michigan.

As the financial world warns us, past performance is no guarantee of future results. The third-most winningest coach hired at Arizona was John Mackovic, and he ended up being the Hindenburg landing on Titanic.

Like Rodriguez, Mackovic’s resume was filled with victories. He, too, was fired from one of college football’s most storied programs. The obvious counterargument to the optimism surrounding RichRod is JoMack (sorry, I won’t type that again).

Before you leap from your tiled roof, however, there are key differences between Mackovic’s past and that of Rodriguez. Mackovic was 57 years old and four years removed from his last season at Texas when he was hired at Arizona. RichRod landed his first head coaching gig at the age of 25 so he’s only 49, the same age as Tomey when he became the UA coach.

The other big difference is Rodriguez has left talented players wherever he’s been. West Virginia went 9-4 in each of the two seasons immediately after Rodriguez’s departure (and hasn’t slowed down since) and Michigan posted an 11-2 record last year. Nothing compared to the Mackovician crater Mike Stoops inherited at Arizona.

The sobering reality is, of the eight coaches who came to the UA with previous head coaching experience, only two were able to improve upon their career winning percentage (Larry Smith and Tomey).

Of course, none of the other six could match the 120 wins on Rich Rodriguez’s ledger, a number that is just 13 college wins fewer than fellow Pac-12 newcomers Mike Leach, Todd Graham and Jim L. Mora combined.

All of Wildcat Universe wants to know: Can RichRod be great again? Can he win at Arizona?

Getting career victory number 121 against Toldeo would be a great start.

* * *

Years(Pre-UA)

WinningSeasons

W

L

%

Years(at UA)

WinningSeasons

W

L

%

Rich Rodriguez

18

12

120

84

0.588

–

–

–

–

–

Mike Stoops

–

–

–

–

–

8

3

41

50

0.451

John Mackovic

13

9

85

64

0.570

3

0

10

18

0.357

Dick Tomey

10

7

63

46

0.578

14

9

95

64

0.597

Larry Smith

4

1

18

27

0.400

7

6

48

28

0.632

Tony Mason

4

3

26

18

0.591

3

1

16

18

0.471

Jim Young

–

–

–

–

–

4

3

31

13

0.705

Bob Weber

–

–

–

–

–

4

0

16

26

0.381

Darrell Mudra

7

6

56

10

0.848

2

1

11

9

0.550

Jim LaRue

–

–

–

–

–

8

3

41

37

0.526

Ed Doherty

5

2

28

22

0.560

2

0

4

15

0.211

Warren Woodson

14

12

97

31

0.758

5

3

26

22

0.542

Bob Winslow

–

–

–

–

–

3

1

12

18

0.400

Miles Casteel

–

–

–

–

–

8

7

46

26

0.639

Orian Landreth

–

–

–

–

–

1

0

3

6

0.333

Tex Oliver

–

–

–

–

–

5

5

32

11

0.744

A.W. Farwick

–

–

–

–

–

1

0

4

5

0.444

Fred Enke

2

1

8

8

0.500

1

0

3

5

0.375

Pop McKale

–

–

–

–

–

16

14

81

32

0.717

(None of the nine UA head football coaches before McKale coached more than two seasons and had no prior wins.)